Minions Take Over, Washington Gets the Hollywood Treatment, and July Is About to Go Nuclear
This week brings Illumination's Minions & Monsters to the July 4th corridor, Angel Studios bets on Young Washington, and the holdover lineup — Supergirl, Jackass 5, Toy Story 5 — is still pulling crowds. Plus: July's upcoming slate might be the strongest of the entire summer.
Last week, Supergirl opened the DCU's next chapter and Jackass 5 reminded us that Johnny Knoxville is somehow still standing. This week? The minions are back, George Washington gets a war movie, and we need to talk about what July looks like — because it's absurd.
The Main Event — Minions & Monsters (July 1)
Illumination is back with the seventh installment of the Despicable Me franchise, and this time the Minions are going full Old Hollywood. Set roughly 40 years before the events of the first Minions film, Minions & Monsters follows our favorite yellow chaos agents as they attempt to make a monster movie.
The voice cast is genuinely stacked: Pierre Coffin returns as the Minions, Trey Parker brings his voice talent, Jesse Eisenberg and Zoey Deutch join the ensemble, and you've got Oscar winners Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, and Jeff Bridges rounding things out. That's a lot of firepower for a franchise that already prints money — Despicable Me 4 crossed $960M globally last year, and The Rise of Gru did $939M before that.
The July 4th corridor is historically massive for family animation, and Minions & Monsters has no direct animated competition. With Toy Story 5 entering its third weekend and starting to cool off, the timing is perfect. Anticipation: 9/10.
The Wildcard — Young Washington (July 3)
Young Washington is Angel Studios' bet on the July 4th weekend — and honestly? The casting alone makes it worth watching. William Franklyn-Miller stars as a young George Washington fighting through the French and Indian War, with Ben Kingsley as Robert Dinwiddie and Andy Serkis as General Braddock. Mary-Louise Parker and Kelsey Grammer round out a surprisingly heavyweight cast for what could've been a straight-to-streaming history lesson.
Angel Studios has been building a niche in faith-adjacent prestige fare, and dropping a Washington origin story on Independence Day weekend is smart counter-programming. It won't compete with the Minions for box office dominance, but it doesn't need to. Anticipation: 6/10.
Still in Theaters
The holdover lineup this week is no joke:
- Supergirl (week 2) — The DCU's second film after Superman is finding its audience. Milly Alcock is getting rave reviews and the Lobo scenes are apparently worth the ticket alone. Watch those second-weekend legs.
- Jackass Forever... er, Jackass 5 (week 2) — Johnny Knoxville defying both gravity and medical advice, again. The R-rated counter-programming to everything else.
- Toy Story 5 (week 3) — Still going strong. The franchise that started with Toy Story in 1995, went through Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, and Toy Story 4 — and apparently still has legs. The $1B global target is very much alive.
- Disclosure Day (week 4) — Spielberg's sci-fi epic continues to perform well in IMAX.
Coming in July — And It's Stacked
Here's why you need to start planning your July calendar now:
July 10 — Moana (Live-Action) Disney's live-action reimagining with Dwayne Johnson reprising Maui and Catherine Laga'aia as Moana. Thomas Kail (Hamilton) directs. Lin-Manuel Miranda is producing and the music is getting a refresh. If this follows the Lion King and Aladdin playbook, we're looking at massive global numbers.
July 17 — The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan) This is the big one. Nolan adapts Homer's epic with Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Zendaya as Athena, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron as Circe, and Lupita Nyong'o. Shot with never-before-seen IMAX technology. This has "event cinema" written all over it — the kind of film that makes people go to actual theaters.
July 31 — Spider-Man: Brand New Day The MCU's Phase Six continues. Tom Holland returns as Peter Parker four years after No Way Home, living alone, erased from everyone's memory, and facing a physical evolution that threatens his very existence. Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, Sadie Sink, and Mark Ruffalo join the cast. Destin Daniel Cretton directs. After Homecoming and No Way Home, Holland's Spider-Man is the most bankable superhero franchise in the world right now.
The Verdict
This week is a warm-up. Minions & Monsters will dominate the July 4th corridor because that's what Illumination does — they engineer family-friendly box office machines. Young Washington is an interesting gamble that'll find its audience on patriotic weekend energy.
But the real story is what's coming. Moana live-action, Nolan's The Odyssey, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day — three consecutive weekends of potential $100M+ openers. If June was a three-way war between Spielberg, Pixar, and the DCU, July is about to make June look like a warmup round.
Get your tickets early. This summer isn't slowing down.
Comments (0)
Log in to leave a comment.